395: Chapter 395 The Amateur Doctor Goes Online

"Doctor Chen, my head hurts so much..."

In a medical clinic, a woman leaned gracefully against the table, fanning herself as if she were very hot.

Opposite her sat a young man with a face as fair as jade, sword-like eyebrows, and starry eyes, his gaze as tender as water.

The man glanced at the woman, casually grabbed some black tea and lemon slices, quickly wrapped them in oil paper, and stuffed them into her hand.

"Hey, Doctor Chen, I haven't finished yet!"

The man ignored her, pushing her toward the exit while speaking.

"Go back and put the black tea in a bowl according to the dosage. Pour in hot water and let it cool. Once cool, add the lemon slices. If you can, add some ice. Three doses a day, and you'll be fine in three days."

"Hey, hey, wait, wait—"

Without waiting for the woman to say more, the man pushed her out of the consultation room and shouted simultaneously.

"Next!"

An old man soon entered.

As soon as he sat down, he began to speak.

"Doctor! Me belly on the left side is burnin' hot and stingin' like crazy. This mornin' when I was out plowin' the fields, I scarfed down a few bites of coarse bran food, swallowed 'em whole without chewin', and now me guts feel like they're bein' scraped by bad porridge and blocked by Qi. Is that it?"

The man was stunned on the spot.

He hadn't understood a single word the old man said.

"Sir, do you speak Mandarin?"

After a bout of guessing and hand-gesturing communication, the man finally wrote a few lines on a piece of paper.

He stood up and patted the old man on the shoulder.

"Sir, I happen to be missing a specific herb you need. Here, take this address and go to the Jining Medical Clinic at the east end of the city. They have a full stock of medicine there."

"Go straight from here, turn left once you hit the main street, and keep going until you see it."

After speaking, he casually wrapped a set of iced black tea ingredients and handed them over.

"This is a free gift for you. I wish you a good mood for the rest of the day."

"Take care, sir."

The old man looked dazed, not understanding what was happening. Why was he being ushered out just after sitting down?

But looking down at the extra medicine packets in his arms, he wasn't angry; he just followed the address in a somewhat bewildered manner.

After seeing off the old man, the man called "Next" again, but no one responded for a long time.

He cautiously poked his head out of the consultation room to look outside.

Sure enough, no one was left.

Looking at the sky, it was already afternoon, nearing dusk.

A look of joy immediately appeared on the man's face. He hung up the "Closed" sign, turned back to the rear hall, and changed his clothes.

"Oh boy, that was really difficult for me."

He lay down as soon as he reached the bedside, turning his head to look at the small cloth bag he had placed on the pile of clothes.

Time went back to early morning.

His name was Zhou Yan.

He had been brought to this place by that small cloth bag.

After arriving here, he quickly sorted out his current identity.

A doctor in the city named Hour of the Dragon, famous throughout the city.

Of course, this reputation was actually manufactured by this doctor named Hour of the Dragon.

In reality, he had only become famous by stealing the achievements of an old doctor.

That old doctor possessed heavenly medical skills, but because his face was disfigured, he was unwilling to show himself to others. Thus, he took in the empty-headed but handsome Hour of the Dragon as a front.

Hour of the Dragon was also good at business, earning a fortune by relying on the old master's skills.

The old master didn't care about wealth and only wished to help the world, never questioning Hour of the Dragon's extra income.

As long as the clinic could keep running and offer discounts to the poor, he ignored everything else, focusing entirely on researching medicine.

But recently, a great change struck the world. A bizarre monster called the Blood Demon emerged.

At first, no one noticed anything unusual. It took the opportunity to grow rapidly, even infiltrating the imperial court and killing the Emperor, intending to take his place.

The world's heroes then joined forces to suppress it, only to find that the demon was nearly immortal.

Ultimately, everyone paid a heavy price to wound and repel it, but it still took five corrupted ministers with it and went into hiding, waiting to plague the world again.

After the old master learned of the Blood Demon's existence, he determined to counter it with medical skills.

He exhausted his strength and secluded himself for several days, yet he only managed to develop three doses of an antidote that could cure the Blood Demon's corruption; he never found a way to destroy the Blood Demon itself.

Finally, due to working day and night, he died at his research table.

All he left behind were a suicide note and this small cloth bag containing the antidotes.

After Zhou Yan understood all this, he quickly realized his situation. This place was likely something like a large-scale live-action role-playing game (LARP).

The memories he obtained were the character setting, or identity, provided by the small cloth bag.

Once he figured it out, he wanted to explore the surroundings, but he found he couldn't leave the clinic normally.

When he tried to go out in the morning, an invisible force sent him directly back to the consultation room.

And although his panel could be opened, his equipment effects and most functions were unavailable.

Even his original storage items were gone, replaced by an unfamiliar Storage Pouch containing only the items he had harvested before—nothing else.

After trying several times, Zhou Yan helplessly returned to sit in the consultation room, completely unable to fathom what was going on.

Just then, a piece of paper abruptly appeared on the table.

On the paper was written:

"The old man is gone. It looks like I have to find a way to slip away too. After all, how could I know how to treat illnesses? But my reputation as a divine doctor is of great significance here; many big shots are counting on me to deal with that damn Blood Demon."

"But the old man only left this bag, saying it has medicine to cure the Blood Demon's corruption, without saying how to deal with the Blood Demon itself."

"If I hand it over, I'm afraid it will attract attention, making people even more convinced I have a way, and then they'll lock me up and force me to refine medicine."

"No! Absolutely not!"

"It seems I have to keep acting for at least another day. I'll find an excuse to go out and buy special medicinal ingredients and see if I can leave the city."

"But I absolutely cannot expose that I'm not a divine doctor now, let alone let people know I have the antidote."

"Right, after I've fooled them for a day, I'll go to the back to check the old man's suicide note and research room to see if anything else was left behind."

After reading these lines, Zhou Yan's entire face wrinkled like a twisted dough stick.

"What's the situation? Why are there Rule-Based Urban Legends now?"

"Is this a level that combines LARP and Rule-Based Urban Legends? Who designed this? They really know how to play."

"Could it be there's even going to be a national destiny livestream or something, with a bunch of people watching me?"

Complaining aside, Zhou Yan had no other choice.

Although the panel could be opened, it was as if it were restricted. Even his body wasn't his own. What else could he do?

He could only follow what was written on the paper, continue to pretend to be a divine doctor, and fool his way through the day.

And so, an amateur quack went online.

Knowing nothing of pharmacology or pathology, he could only give patients lectures on general principles and advise them to drink more hot water.

However, to Zhou Yan's surprise, the commoners actually couldn't see the words on that piece of paper.

At the same time, he discovered that among the patients who came today, most weren't sick at all; they were just rich women and young ladies who coveted his looks.

Throughout the day, the only serious patient was that last old man; the others were either there to pass messages or to flirt.

Zhou Yan ended up prescribing forty-nine doses of iced black tea. Although he didn't know why the clinic stocked so many ingredients for iced black tea—especially where all those lemons came from—it was the only thing he could do.

Since they weren't sick anyway, drinking some iced black tea was quite nice.

If someone really had a serious illness, he had prepared another path.

While seeing patients during the day, Zhou Yan discovered there was another medical clinic in the city.

At the time, a young boy came to buy medicine in a significant quantity. Upon asking, he found out the neighboring clinic was missing a few herbs and came to temporarily restock some Qi and blood tonics.

Zhou Yan took the opportunity to indirectly ask for their location, thinking that if he encountered trouble, he would push the patients over there.

The recollection ended. Zhou Yan tried a 'carp leap' to get up but failed, falling back to the ground like a lying salted fish.

After recovering for a while, he rubbed his waist and stood up.

"Hiss—how is this body so useless? It can't even do a carp leap. What a waste of such a good-looking shell."

He casually pulled on a set of ordinary clothes, tucked the small cloth bag into his shirt, held his waist, and slowly walked toward the basement.